| < previous | next > SUPERSTITIONS (1 October 2012) (many thanks to Jeanne Bryan for this idea) Ireland is still quite a superstitious place and the 'Celtic tiger' has barely dented this image! Here are some superstitions from Ireland - I'm sure many of these are not exclusive: - When a child loses a tooth, it is customary to place it under his/her pillow before going to sleep. The following morning the 'Tooth Fairy' will have replaced the tooth with a coin or money. In the last century it used to be a six pence piece, but these days I think the minimum is a euro!
- "Third time lucky..."= common superstitous saying, probably biblical or even before... NEW
- Don't open an umbrella indoors - brings bad luck (how do you dry it then?)
- You spill the salt - throw it over your left shoulder (otherwise you'll have bad luck)
- You find a coin - give it to someone else and you'll have good luck
- You see a ladder ahead - don't walk under it or you'll have bad luck
- You break a mirror - seven years bad luck
- You see one magpie(s) - the poem goes "One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy"! Magpies tend to be seen in pairs - they tend to keep their partners for life
- You walk around the "Black" church three times - you'll meet the devil himself! The "black church" is a protestant church in Dublin's northside.
top of page | | Guest sayings Paul Gough, Dublin): Shur yiv a grate vice fer sellin papers = "Excuse me I hope that you don't me saying so but your singing is terrible" [Comes from the days when Dublin had many newspaper vendors who would shout out the names of the newspapers that they sold] Gobshite or a worse eejit = self explanatory Banjaxed =broken Were ya born in a field? =Close the door Culchie =Country man / Non-Dubliner Mortified/morto =embarrased | |
